Cross-posting this from Tumblr, because I actually think this might be more useful to people here on Cohost.
With the resurgence of people becoming interested in setting up their own websites and platforms, one thing I'd encourage people to look into is something called "static site generators." If you're looking to stand up a really simple site without a lot of dynamic content, this is probably the easiest way to do so.
Static-site generators allow you to automate the development of html pages that are ready to serve. The biggest difference between static sites and dynamic sites is that the latter cobbles together the page your users see by pulling all sorts of data from databases upon request time. In contrast, static sites allow you to serve ready-made html pages, making them much faster, secure, and cheaper to host.
(You do need to know a bit of back-end programming to run some simple commands and setup configuration files, but if you're already dabbling in HTML, CSS, and JS, I'm guessing you're up for the challenge.)
Here are a few resources if you want to try it out.
- What is a static site generator?
- A list of static site generators you can choose from
- There's a lot on that list, but these are the ones I often see people using: Next.js, Jekyll, Hugo, Pelican
- Places that host static sites, often for free, and if they charge, it's mostly mostly for little fee:
The process of updating your website will be quite different than if you're used to platforms like Wordpress or Weebly. But if you're okay with using markdown editors and syncing your files manually, the amount of control you get back over your own content is totally worth it. There are also a lot of plugins and resources already out there to make the experience much smoother.